Instamatch Game

Just Launched on App Store!

An Instagram photo matching game for iPhone and iPad.

The Team:

Me: User Interface & Icon Designer :)

Robleh Jama: Co-creator & Producer

Jeremy Noonan: Co-creator & Developer

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Weird Preview on iOS 5

LOCKBOX Password on iTunes Store

• Category: Productivity
• Released: Mar 09, 2011
• Version: 1.0
• 1.0
• Size: 0.6 MB
• Language: English
• Seller: LOCKBOX LLC
• © LOCKBOX LLC
Rated 4+

Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 4.2 or later.

Description

LOCKBOX Passwords is an iPhone and iPod Touch application that enables you to manage your most sensitive passwords. It frees you from the pain of having to memorize multiple passwords and lets you access them conveniently from your mobile device. LOCKBOX Passwords features enhanced security features that add additional layers of protection for your data. Unlike other applications that try to do everything under the sun, this application focuses on being the best at managing and protecting your passwords.

Version 1.0 Key Features:
- A clean and easy-to-use interface
- Allows users to create complex access passwords for higher security, instead of easily guessed PIN numbers
- Password assistant to help you generate passwords per various standards and regulations
- Automatic reminders to let you know when you need to change your passwords
- Utilizes built-in device secure storage facilities and adds extended security features to help keep your most sensitive password data more secure

Upcoming Features:
- Synchronization with DropBox
- Additional security features to apply even more protection for your data

Important Note:
If you are using iTunes to backup and/transfer your data across devices, it is important to use encrypted backups otherwise your password data will not be properly transferred. Please see http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1766 for more information about properly backing up KeyChain data.

you can download here

User-Led Innovation Can't Create Breakthroughs; Just Ask Apple and Ikea

source: www.fastcodesign.com

Companies should lead their users, not the other way around.

The user is king. It’s a phrase that’s repeated over and over again as a mantra: Companies must become user-centric. But there’s a problem: It doesn’t work. Here’s the truth: Great brands lead users, not the other way around.

The Apple and IKEA way

Take Apple. One evening, well into the night, we asked some of our friends on the Apple design team about their view of user-centric design. Their answer? “It’s all bullshit and hot air created to sell consulting projects and to give insecure managers a false sense of security. At Apple, we don’t waste our time asking users, we build our brand through creating great products we believe people will love."
Another hyper-growth brand, IKEA, has the same belief. One of us had the privilege of working closely with IKEA’s global brand and design leaders; at IKEA the unspoken philosophy is: “We show people the way.” IKEA designers don’t use user studies or user insights to create their products. When I asked them why, they said “We tried and it didn’t work.”
Of course, neither Apple nor IKEA will say this publicly since they are both extremely closed companies and would risk offending users (and the design community) by speaking out against user-centeredness.
And since no one will speak up, the false value of the user-as-leader has spread.

Be a Visionary

If users can’t tell a company what to do, what should companies do instead? The best brands are all guided by a clear vision for the world, a unique set of values, and a culture that makes them truly unique and that no user insights could ever change.
They define their own rules.The vision must come first. This could come from the client, designers, a team, an organization, or a design leader. It needs to be clear and applied consistently over the project.

Create an icon

The same goes for truly extraordinary products, the icons of the world. There are three types of iconic products and none of them are made through user-driven design.

Democratic Icons

These could also be termed “slow” icons. These products take a long time to become icons. They are usually of plain or simple design, created to fulfill a certain function, such as the paper clip, tea bags, potato peelers, and the mailbox, all of which are valued for their functionality, rather than their aesthetics. Over time, users become attached to them and eventually, these products gain so much meaning that they start to gain cultural currency and layers of connotations. These icons are generally easily available.

Design Icons

This is when a familiar product such as a chair or a car whose design is particularly shape-driven will get a makeover, with an innovative design that alters the look of this familiar object. The first reaction of the mass audience is often negative, claiming the object “looks weird.” But over time, the audience adapts to the change and comes to love the product for its personality; it attains cultural relevance and becomes iconic. Hans Wegner's Y-chair and the Aeron chair are typical examples of design classics that were adopted late.

Instant Icons

Instant may be familiar products or offer a familiar function like the design icons, but something about their design that make them essentially new products. They open new markets and create new demand—just think of the Polaroid camera, the Sony Walkman, the Flip Camera, the Blackberry, and the Apple iPod.

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